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It's easy to forget why the Old Testament laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy are so special because to us living in the time of Grace, they seem boring and very tedious. Most people who fail at reading the Bible through in a year lose interest when they get to the long parts of Exodus and Leviticus where God in meticulous detail with law after law gave them how to approach Him and how not to approach Him, how to give sacrifices properly and how not to give sacrifices. How to build the tabernacle and how not to build the tabernacle. How to cleanse the priests and how to enter into the tabernacle. On and on it goes and law after law until God has given 613 commandments of how and when and what for.

It would seem strange that God would give that generation so many regulations and so many teachings and so much literature and plans that must be carefully studied and followed down to the nitty gritty, but you must remember that, unlike Abraham and Jacob and Noah's day, something very special was happening in Israel as they came out of the land of Egypt. God, Himself, was going to live in their midst in a permanent manifestation of His glory! It wouldn't be like Abraham who felt or talked to the presence of God four, maybe five times in his life, but God would be in the temple every day and night and His presence would be able to be felt by the High Priest EVERY year. His wisdom and direction would be able to be inquired of every day.

This tabernacle that Moses would build was not like a temple built to some false god that had to be carved by man and set up inside. But when they constructed this tabernacle and consecrated it according to the plan of God, the Almighty who had created Heaven and Earth was going to descend from heaven and dwell there! This wasn't going to be just a man-made religion, but a heavenly relationship! It wasn't a tradition passed down of something that only happened long ago, but this people had already experienced the mighty hand of God and they were about to go forth into the wilderness under the visible manifestation of the Spirit of God Almighty! God was going to reign from among their midst on earth!

I want to impress upon you the simple fact that God Almighty really did everything that the scriptures say. He really shook the Mt. Sinai with thunder and lightening. He really descended into the tabernacle in a visible form and really led them through the wilderness in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He really did vindicate Moses and drown the Egyptians and provide manna bread from heaven and water to flow from rocks! He really did carve the ten commandments into stone and really did anoint men to write down His Word so that future generations could learn from it and obey His commands!

There are many "people" that claim that they have a penchant on the divine and that they serve "God." There are idols set up to numerous "gods" on every continent, but only this Jewish people really had THE God, the One who created the universe come live with them. All other temples in the world had men carrying their gods into the new temple after construction, but only Israel had the real, living God entering under His own power. All the others were figments of man's imagination, but Israel was made the keepers of THE heavenly!

My wife has an old Christian song that she sings sometimes that goes something like this:

It has distortion guitars and a lot of screaming but it crudely gets across a point and that is all of the other ancient claims of "their gods" are bunk, but the only one that has been proven by time, history, and even archeology is the supernatural claims of the Jews. The ruins of Jericho have been found and they really did fall of mysterious origin! Egyptian records show that for some reason the Pharaoh of the period really did release a great multitude of free slave laborers that became the Jewish people! Furthermore, the empty tomb proves that Jesus really did rise again! Therefore this God that was once revealed to the Jewish people named Jesus really is the one, true living God! He is the only God that hears and answers His people even today!

So all of those laws and guidelines and seeming endless details of how to and what to when to? Understand that they were important because God was really coming to live among them! If He had just been a creation of man, then they would not have needed such precision and detail. But the responsibility of the law came with the privilege of having the heavenly! The careless Egyptian way of living could no longer apply because now God was in their midst! The normal rules of earth were not good enough because now the Almighty from the heavens had come to earth! If they wanted the Mighty God among them, then THEY had to change to conduct themselves in such a manner as to befit the King of Kings! They could no longer just live in the same old manner, but every little detail and viewpoint of their lifestyle and habits had to be rethought! It all had to be viewed in light of the heavenly now living in their midst!

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Let me ruin a good sermon by jumping to the point. In our text we read:

The writer of Hebrews has spent twelve chapters convincing Hebrew Christians that following Jesus under Grace is better, forward, and greater than the Law of Moses. He has compared Moses with Jesus and found that while Jesus might be the "prophet like unto Moses" He is altogether superior and better than Moses. And his point in our text is this: if the children of Israel did not obey the instructions of God commanded through the mouthpiece of Moses on earth, they faced judgment and heartache! And now God has spoken through a mouthpiece directly from heaven in the form of Jesus Christ, so we'd really better pay attention to what has been commanded of us! We have a heavenly instruction so much greater than even Israel had! But with that heavenly instruction comes a great responsibility to obey even more exactly what has been taught us by Jesus and His disciples! If they didn't escape under Law with an earthly mouthpiece teaching them the things of God, then how much more shall we not escape if we disobey the voice of Jesus!

There are preachers today who seem to think that Grace is a license to do whatever you want to and that nothing really matters anymore! That is NOT a scriptural principle. Jesus actually taught that Grace was stricter than Law. If you don't believe me, then listen to the following scripture:

So your attitude towards others is stricter in Grace than in Law, and then Jesus continued with this:

That's "tight but right!" And then Jesus hit on this:

Even the marriage commandment when following Jesus would be tighter! And then:

Your mouth is stricter and then:

Your response to your enemies was apparently a big deal:

Anybody want to argue that Grace is not stricter than Law!? Yes, we may not be bound to the ceremonial law of Moses, but what Jesus was saying was "I am greater than Moses" and you are witnesses of an age "greater than the Law" therefore the responsibility is increased! Those in Leviticus had Moses and the prophets to teach them, but the people of Jesus' day had the Creator of Moses and the prophets to teach them, therefore they had a greater responsibility to obey, not just the letter of the law and commandments, but the spirit of it too!

Some people want a list today of dos and don'ts and what it the bare minimum that they have to do in order to be saved, but now we must "sell out." Jesus tells us to "follow me." If there was a list of "do this" and "don't do this," then you would eventually be able to get to the bottom and say "okay I've done all of that" but that's not the deal anymore. Jesus has come with a different command. The rich young ruler had done all of the law, but then came the part of "sell all that you have and follow me." That's why he went away sorrowful because he wanted it all legated out in a contract and Jesus said "you've got to give everything!"

Here this preacher today: you can sum up all of Jesus' difficult teachings in Matthew chapter 5 by saying this "we must not just obey in deed the commandments of scripture but do so in spirit also!" It's not enough to give, but now the Lord loveth a "cheerful giver." You can't be faithful to your wife in your physical actions and yet be unfaithful in your thoughts! And so the greatest commandment is that "the Lord our God is One, and thou shalt serve the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, mind, and strength. You can't just go through religious motions anymore, but God wants your everything to be sold out to this! In that way, Grace is stricter than Law because we have a more perfect revelation!

Bro. Bernard says that " 'follow me' is so simple that even a child could understand and yet it's so profound that you could spend the rest of your life obeying it!" God's looking for a relationship not a religious people. He's not looking for someone who just follows a list of rules but someone who has the spirit that "I'll give everything if I have to!" That's what Grace is all about! We've seen Jesus and had His teaching, therefore our response must be greater than the people of Moses' time! We cannot view living for God as just a one in seven days and a few festivals here and there where we get closer to Him, sort of deal! Jesus has come with a better way, but with that revelation comes a greater responsibility!

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Nowhere does the responsibility of the heavenly become evident in scripture than in our other text in Leviticus chapter 10. We read about the unfortunate circumstances of two of the sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu.

In the story, it was the time of the dedication of the temple and all of the tabernacle of Moses had been completed. Aaron had stood before the temple and offered the necessary sacrifices of dedication and consecration and then to the amazement of the people the Shekina, the visible presence of God descended into the Tabernacle to dwell there! God had show up as He said He would! Then in Leviticus chapter 9, suddenly from the cloud of God's glory came fire shot out and consumed the sacrifice on the altar and lit the flame there which was never to be put out! The fire was from God Himself.

Then came the time for the first incense to be placed upon the altar of incense inside and so Nadab and Abihu got up and grabbed their censers which were for carrying coals and then rather than getting the fire of God from the altar that had just been lit by God, they got coals from an ordinary flame -- a man-made fire -- and began to approach the tabernacle with their censers and incense, but before they could even get to the door of the tabernacle, the scriptures say that the fire that had just before blessed Aaron and Moses by approving of their sacrifice upon the altar shot out once again and this time consumed Nadab and Abihu. And the reason for their deaths is simply given as this: "they offered strange fire before the Lord." In other words they erred in getting their fire from the wrong place.

There's quite a bit of conjecture among scholars why Nadab and Abihu were so foolish as to break one of the commandments of God so soon and carelessly. Some scholars say that they were drunk. Some say that they were worldly. Some say they were trying to prove themselves in front of the people and were more worried about pleasing the people than they were God. I don't known exactly what the deal was, but one thing was for sure: they learned the hard way that with having the real thing in your midst, there comes a greater responsibility! The careless worship of Egypt that they were used to no longer was good enough! They could not base their examples after people who worshipped pagan gods because it was very much different now! They had the heavenly and so they had better get it right, because the stakes were a lot higher!

Let me preach to you:

As fantastic as the manifestation of Moses' tabernacle was, we've been given something greater. The personal "dos and don'ts" of Moses' time only dealt with men and women who came near the presence of God when they came to the temple building. NOW our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost! The presence of God dwells inside this physical frame and if you have the Holy Ghost, then the manifest presence of God is with you continually! If you have the Holy Ghost, then understand that you have the heavenly Spirit of God dwelling within your life and now you are "kings and priests" unto Him ministering to Him daily! If God is going to get a sacrifice of praise or prayer in your temple, then you will have to be the one to do it! If there will be a sacrifice on the altar at all for Him, then it will have to be your sacrifice! If the temple is to be pure and holy and clean, then you must ensure that it is kept pure and holy and clean. And furthermore, if something isn't right, then the responsibility for that will come back to you. If you have the heavenly, there in lies a tremendous responsibility!

I understand that God's Mercy comes into play and keeps us from sometimes reaping immediately what we have sown. Thank God for His mercy, you were saved by Grace, but without His mercy you wouldn't be able to be here today! And yet at the same time, we must realize that we are not playing church. People get the Holy Ghost in our church. We don't have a bunch of people who claim to be believers and yet don't have the Spirit of God inside of them, but we have the heavenly living in us! Therefore with that Spirit of God, comes the responsibility to live exactly as He has commanded us in His Word! We must obey it in ALL areas and we must realize the seriousness of what we are doing! We must live holy before Him in every area and strive to draw closer to Him! We must take care to heed His voice because we are dealing with the real thing. We do not have a religion but we have the Almighty living within us!

When we worship, we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth! We must obey the actions that we have been commanded to do, but it must never be just "going through the motions" without our true spirit man involved!

When we pray, we'd better carefully choose our words and not just repeat mindless phrases and we must carefully select what we say because God really hears our prayers and really responds to them! And as you pray, He sees and knows your heart and motives!

When we hear the Word of God, we'd better learn it well and apply it to our lives, because we will be judged according to whether we obeyed it exactly or not in letter and in spirit! You can obey the commandment and violate the very spirit of it, but we must obey in spirit and in action!

When we walk out of the doors of this church, we'd better keep living according to God's commands. We'd better not be one thing in church and another away from it because nothing has changed just because it's not Sunday morning at MVCW, because our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and the presence of God is just as there as He was on Sunday! We'd better walk "as He walked!" We'd better take it seriously because this is not a game, but is life or death! We are not playing religion with traditions of men, but rather we have the heavenly, fire of the Holy Ghost in our midst. And with it comes the responsibility to obey!

When the presence of God or the ministry identifies an area in our life that needs to change, we'd better find an altar of repentance and ask God's forgiveness and get it out of our life! Our God is a consuming fire! The issue with Nadab and Abihu was that because God could not consume their sacrifice because it was sinful, so instead the fire consumed them! When you come into the presence of God with unrepented sin and you try to bring a sacrifice in such a faulty condition, then the fire of the Holy Ghost that would consumed your sacrifice and vindicated your cause by changing your life, will then begin to consume you and destroy you! Too many people take living right very casually after they get the Holy Ghost not even realizing that if they will not yield their faults to the consuming fire of the Holy Ghost, it will eventually destroy them! It's not unfair, it just means that you've got the real thing and when you've got the heavenly, then there is an increased responsibility! We can't treat the things of God lightly and Bro. Sibley is grieved when the Spirit of God is moving and the call of God has gone forth and people just sit there and chat idly as if it's not time to seek God's face or as if they did not need what had just been preached. I'm grieved because I understand that you don't understand what you're playing with and it's nothing to play with at all!

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In 2 Samuel chapter 6 we have the sobering first account of David's trying to bring in the ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. The ark of the covenant was the throne of God upon earth and represented His presence. Because of the sinfulness of Saul's reign, it had been captured in battle by the Philistines and then when God had struck entire cities of the Philistines with hemorrhoids they decided to return it. The Philistines realized that this Israelite God was very different than their false gods and they did not want the responsibility of having Him in their midst if they weren't going to live for Him! Interesting, they took out of the ark the pot of manna and the rod of Aaron that budded but left the Ten Commandments! Which is about right because many people want the blessings and provisions of God and the authority that comes with serving Him, but they don't want to obey ALL of the Word of God! And as long as the Word of God was in their midst along with the presence of God the Philistines found out that they were smitten for their evil ways. Such is the responsibility to live right in the presence of the heavenly! If you want the heavenly in your midst, you've got to take EVERYTHING in the ark, including the Word of God!

When the Philistines sent the ark back, it was taken to the home of a man named Abinadab and forgotten about. There is rested for years until David decided that the people needed to consecrate themselves and that life was too short to go to a church that didn't have God's presence there. He formed a plan and a celebration parade to usher the ark into Jerusalem and they put the ark on a new cart -- which was the wrong thing to do, for if they would have checked the scripture they would have found out that the ark was to be only carried on an old cart. They got the idea of the new cart from the Philistines who had used the same method. But what the Philistines could get away with without anyone being destroyed, wouldn't work for God's chosen people.

And since I'm here, let me just point out that we cannot model or compare ourselves to other churches or denominations that do not have the revelation of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Ghost because we have the truth and the heavenly! They can do things and it will not completely destroy them because God's mercy is trying to bring them into the full truth, but we who have it must realize that having the heavenly brings a greater responsibility! We must do things exactly like God's Word no matter what anybody else does or not!

With great fanfare, they got the ark out of Abinadab's house and on the cart and Abinadab's two sons, Uzzah and Ahio, drove the cart. And the scriptures then say:

At first it looks harsh and unfair for God to have killed Uzzah. After all the ark was about to fall wasn't it!? But I want you to realize why God did what He did. There were other people around the ark when it began to fall, but it was Uzzah who did the forbidden and reached out and grabbed the ark to steady it. The problem was that Uzzah had been raised in his daddy's house with the ark. And somewhere he grew so familiar with it that he began to take it for granted and treat it too casually. Where the others were in awe of the presence of the Lord, Uzzah was comfortable and not really thinking about it. After all, he had seen it and been blessed by it all of his life, it wasn't really a big deal to him. Uzzah died because he allowed his familiarity to bring a lack of reverence and casualness about the things of God!

We have something special in this church in Castroville. I'm not telling you this to pump you up and we are definitely not the only church in the world where God moves like this but we are special. I have evangelists and missionaries and many other visitors who are impressed with the liberty and the moving of the Spirit within our services and the anointing that they feel when they are here. One of the main reasons why our church is different than most even Pentecostal churches is that because almost everyone is new to this experience and so we don't have a bunch of people who have had the Holy Ghost for 40 years and are luke-warm and dried up sitting on the pews like some churches do. I thank God for that! When people visit our church from other United Pentecostal Churches, that are disgruntled or looking for a change in address, I don't mind telling you that I let them know that I would prefer that they go somewhere else. I don't want someone with a bitter spirit and a luke warm attitude to poison what God is doing here! We have something special here! There's not another church in this county where you can feel what you feel here. I know that.

But let me just point out where we are. We have the heavenly mainly because many of you have sold out to the doctrinal truths of the Apostolic Church and the leadership of this church has decided to have revival. But we must remember that there is a tremendous responsibility that comes with our God-given anointing. We must guard against the attitude of Uzzah lest we become so used to the moving of the Shekina presence of God in our midst that we grow accustomed to it and not respond to it completely and totally! We must not let familiarity cause us to become callused to the seriousness and power that is in our midst! We must guard against dying the death of Uzzah!

And I love pastoring this church and do not want to pastor another group of people on the face of the earth, but please hear this preacher: the sky is the limit for us! We don't have the ceilings that some other preachers and places do! There will be some preachers that will be called to towns where people fight the tooth and toenail and thirty souls a year will be a tremendous number for them and God will bless them and they will be saved and God will be pleased, but thirty souls is not an adequate number for this church. God has given us the heavenly, but with it comes a responsibility to do something with it. When you invite someone to this church, you know that they will feel the presence of God and that it will not be a boring religious endeavor. Therefore if we don't win people and have revival and build a new building and fill it up, it will be counted against us because we have been given the heavenly! Therefore we must embrace the responsibility!

But I believe that if we will guard our hearts against callousness and obey ALL of the Word of God that He will build His church here! And that God will finish what He has started! But we must embrace the heavenly responsibility that has been given us. We cannot settle for ordinary because God has given us an extraordinary power! We cannot settle for less than more! Let's give Him everything!